Pakistan allows Chinese Convidicea Vaccine for Covid-19

KARACHI: The registration board of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) on Friday allowed emergency use of single-dose of Chinese Convidicea Vaccine (Ad5-nCoV) for COVID-19, developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSino Biologicals Inc., officials told ‘The News’.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan, also confirmed that the drug regulator has approved the emergency use of Ad5-nCoV in Pakistan on the recommendations of an experts committee, which had been constituted to assess the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, responsible to decide, whether the vaccine should be administered to people or not.

The officials said the registration board of the DRAP has shown a positive nod to the manufacturer of coronavirus vaccine, after the committee comprising six infectious diseases experts, including pathologists and others, assessed the results and data submitted by the company and recommended for allowing it to be used in Pakistan to inoculate people against Covid-19 pandemic.

Pakistan became the second country, following Mexico, which authorised emergency use of the Convidicea Vaccine to administer to people. The officials said so far, four vaccines, including Chinese vaccine Sinopharm, British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca’s AZD1222, Russian vaccine Sputnik-V and CanSino’s Convidicea Vaccine (Ad5-nCoV), have been allowed in the country. A request for the approval of the vaccine for emergency use was submitted to DRAP's registration board by AJM Pharma (Pvt) Limited, officials said, adding that the decision to approve the vaccine in emergency use was taken during the 300th meeting of the authority's registration board.